Welcome to our July Newsletter!

July already! I have some great stuff for you this month, some super easy and affordable marketing tips, podcast recommendations for your commute, a couple of great books and how to outsource for business growth so you can focus on what’s really important instead of being bogged down in the day-to-day.

Enjoy!

Michelle xx

 

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Marketing for Small Business

Marketing can be put on the backburner when we are busy or budgets are tight. Here are some ideas that won’t break the budget or take your focus away for too long.

Google Local Listing:  Google Local Listing provides local businesses with a great opportunity to reach their target audience without spending a cent! You can list your business on Google Local and provide your details and a brief description of your offering. Want to boost your credibility? You may ask your customers to review your business and give ratings based on their experience. Excellent ratings and positive reviews will help your business go places.

The bottom line is: It’s simple, effective and free of cost.
Promotional Products: Who doesn’t like free gifts? Handing out free giveaways is one of the best ways to reach your customers’ heart and leave them thinking about you.  Ideally, you can provide a giveaway like an e-book or guide and ask for an opt in email address in exchange for the free gift.
There are also promotional products that can draw a larger and more immediate uptake from your targeted audience.  You’ll need a budget for some of the most common yet effective promotional products that include: USB drives, hats, mugs etc. Rewarding loyal customers with something more personal is also a thoughtful way to help with keeping you at the top of their list in your sector.
Word of Mouth Marketing: A happy customer is the perfect sales person for your business. Your business can go places through word of mouth marketing, third party endorsement is what all businesses desire. For this to happen, host events for your customers, and they’ll welcome the opportunity to thank you with a testimonial or referral. Your business prospects are more likely to listen what your existing customers say about you so make sure your marketing campaigns include sharing your customer reviews and testimonials in social media.

Use Social Media to your advantage: Social media offers a treasure trove of marketing opportunities for small businesses to grow whilst enabling big businesses to maintain their high stature. It works for all business types too. Everyone is online in some form or another and your prospects are quite likely to linger on social media with their friends and associates so your business needs to be there too. All you need to do is create a profile under your brand name and apply the 80-20 rule in publishing your posts. The rule says 80% of your posts should be informative or engaging while remaining 20% could take the direct marketing approach. Resist the urge to join every platform, target the ones that your customers would regularly use.

What are your favourite marketing tips? Let us know on Facebook!

 

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Important Dates

28th of August – The first provisional tax instalment for 2018 financial year is due. June/July GST is also due for payment and filing.

 

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Podcasts

I believe that learning is a life-long journey, one of my favourite ways to satisfy my curiosity and continually develop is through listening to audiobooks and podcasts. Here are some of my favourite to listen to through a commute or doing the housework.

The Dave Ramsey Show – Listen to Dave Ramsey for consistent financial and life advice.

The School of Greatness – Lewis Howes is an inspirational former professional athlete, turned entrepreneur who delivers weekly interviews with successful business people.

Smart Passive Income – Pat Flynn is a former Architect turned successful entrepreneur and family man. Each week, he interviews inspirational people on his podcast ready to fire you up.

Entrepreneur on Fire – Speaking of fire, John Lee Dumas, is a former officer in the American military now runs a very successful business and DAILY podcast.

You will never find yourself short on inspiration again!

 

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Memories for my Grandchild by Suzanne Zenkel

Don’t you wish your grand parent had written down their life story? “Memories for My Grandchild: A Keepsake to Remember” enables you to write down yours! Guided questions and prompts will help you tell your grandchildren (and great-grandchildren to come) all about your childhood and teen years; your education, love, and marriage; work, community, religion, military service; parenthood and family life; and, of course, grandparenthood! This guided journal memory book features: Inside back cover pocket in which to store keepsakes, notes. Creamy smooth pages that take pen beautifully. Archival, acid-free paper helps preserve your memories.

Check it out here.

Who says you can’t? You Do by Daniel Chidiac

Have you ever wondered why there are few people living their dream, yet others seem to be slipping further away from theirs with every day that passes? Daniel Chidiac’s writing has touched millions of people worldwide and helps to transform thousands of lives daily. By opening Who Says You Can’t? YOU DO, we embark on a psychological and emotional journey that is certain to unlock our truest potential. This challenging yet extraordinarily rewarding book is the ultimate guide to discover the fulfilment we have been searching for our whole life. ‘Who Says You Can’t? YOU DO is stimulating and regardless of one’s success, perceived and otherwise, assists in determining how to engineer what we want in life and from life.

Check it out here.

 

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Outsourcing for Growth

We all have the same number of hours in a day and there is only so much that we can get done in those hours. If you haven’t already considered outsourcing, here are some ideas.

Delegating Tasks to External Sources can Help You Save Time and Money: By delegating tasks, you can save significant amounts of time! In addition, you save on the costs of maintaining office space and equipment that you would have to arrange for when you hire additional employees. Spend a few minutes each day assigning tasks and tracking progress and you can have experts helping you manage many of the company activities at a much lower cost

You can Research the Market for Wider Sales Channels: A smart business owner is one who is in aware of the latest marketing trends and pricing structures in the field where their company produces goods or services. You’ll also need feedback on how customers like your offerings and the areas that may need improvement. To get information about new product features that customers are looking for, you’ll need to conduct surveys and market research. Use the information they provide you with to develop new products and grow your company.

You can Develop an Efficient System for Product Delivery: As your business continues to grow, you can also delegate the actual delivery of products. They will collect the shipments from your location and deliver them seamlessly to your customers. Since these agencies partner with other transport companies, they may be able to take care of this activity for you at prices far lower than what you incur. With the task of delivering goods out of the way, you can now turn your attention solely to the development processes.

Outsourcing is a smart business strategy that can help you take your business to the next level. It helps you save time, funds, and the bandwidth of your capabilities so you can focus on more the important tasks of expanding and growing your company. Scout around for the most competitive rates for acquiring the services you need and you may soon have a rapidly growing company on your hands.

Let us know what you’d outsource first over on Facebook!

 

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